Meet Maxon Mani and George Mombi, two leaders from Christian Leaders Training College (CLTC) who are helping to build the church in PNG, Melanesia and Pasifika.
CLTC is giving leaders from across PNG the opportunity to study the Word of God at a Masters level and develop their leadership capacity within their own context.
In 2015 CLTC celebrated 50 years serving as the major English medium Bible and Theological college equipping men and women for leadership across the full spectrum of Evangelical churches and their communities of Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, plus some students from Vanuatu, Tonga and Samoa in the wider Pacific region. Commencing with secondary level certificate courses in 1965 and progressing steadily through to tertiary level Diploma (1968) and primary degree programmes (1979), since 2008 the CLTC has included master of Theology teaching to keep pace with the increasing needs of the Melanesian churches. Throughout that same half century the College has also equipped key Melanesians, mostly CLTC graduates themselves, to join the teaching faculty on its three campuses at Banz in the Highlands and at Port Moresby and Lae, the region’s two major cities. As at 2016, all but two full-time Bible teachers in the Diploma and primary degree programmes are Melanesians. Papua New Guineans, Solomon Islanders and Vanuatuans who have graduated from the MTh programme now carry the major teaching responsibilities in the Diploma and primary degree (BTh) programmes.
And now New Zealand is involved: Mombi and Mani are both currently studying doctorates at the University of Otago with the intention of returning to CLTC to contribute even more.